The challenge in the live streaming market from the beginning has been monetization. Sites such as Mogulus have moved from a consumer offering to a revenue focused professional model, but the rest of the players have had it hard: how do you charge for a service that your competition is offering for free?

Justin.tv, who for the record we love, not only because it’s a great service, but because they’ve also catered for non-US users where similar services haven’t, have offered for the first time a paid pro membership. Having looked at it, I can confidently say that even if this new subscription offering had come from my wife or mother, I’d say the same thing: WTF.

For $9.95 a month, pro account holders get to watch videos without ads, special colors in chat, a special icon in chat, special pro badges on their profiles, and last but not least, five free “gifts,” little graphics you can send to other users on Justin.tv that usually cost $1 each to buy.

Let me make that clear: no ads, pretty colors, special badges, and five dinky graphics. Did I say WTF already?

Justin.tv is pitching the offering as a way of “giving [users] access to features that are difficult or impossible for us to provide for free.” The ad part I get, but pretty colors in chat? Really? And even then, would users really pay $9.95 a month to not have ads?

What a pro membership should have offered is ad share or ad rights for users who broadcast on Justin.tv, maybe improved quality streams or priority access, or even improved customization options for their profile pages (not trinkets, but actual html access, even on a limited basis.) Surely there’s something better they could have pitched that what they have?

(via Centernetworks)